- Bipasha Basu was warned against doing the adult film Jism early in her career
- She chose to do Jism because she believed in its adult love story theme
- Jism influenced beauty and fashion trends, popularizing a bold, bronze look
Bipasha Basu was only three years into her acting career, with successful films like Raaz and Ajnabee, when she decided to take on Mahesh Bhatt's Jism. The actress recently opened up about how she was warned not to do Jism, as it would "finish" her.
Bipasha told Elle, "Everybody in the business told me, 'Do not do this film.' They said I would be finished if I did something which had a little bit of erotica. And my take was that I'm an adult. It's an adult love story. It is made as an adult film. It is not for the kids. I really enjoyed the shades of Sonia in that film, and I just knew that I had to do it."
She added, "Suddenly the waves and the tongs and the big kohl, the bronze skin, the white outfits, the beach - everything started trending in a big way. The look completely changed, and people really started accepting the bold. So I do think there are things that I have done which changed the way a woman looked at that point of time in our business for the better. It's not just that I did different things; it's also that I got accepted differently."
On Jism Making Bipasha Basu Move Away From The 'Conventional' Heroine Image
In an old interview with Hindustan Times, Bipasha spoke about breaking away from the image of the conventional Hindi film heroine by signing Jism, "Jism was the time when I was at the peak, and everyone told me, 'You cannot do an adult content film. You are like the typical Hindi heroine who is now established in people's hearts.' And I said, I just like the story so much. I said I'll go ahead and do it. Everybody stopped me from doing it. My manager thought I had gone crazy."
She added that the film shifted perceptions about the roles women could play in Hindi cinema, especially when it came to grey or negative characters. She also noted its impact on beauty and fashion trends:
"But it worked for me and then things changed. Women suddenly were tonging their hair. They wore a bronze look. There was no stereotypical thinking that the woman can't play the negative character. It all changed after that. So it's been pathbreaking for me. That has been one very important film."
Directed by Amit Saxena and written by Mahesh Bhatt, Jism was a commercial success.
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